One Last Wish
by SkiaWolf
Summary: All Seth ever wished for was to see his friends become close once again. But as the years go on, he finds himself losing hope that the two which had once been friends would ever have their bonds tied once more. / Christmas oneshot, based off the Vocaloid song 'Reboot'.


**A/N:** So, this is kind of my Christmas special. I say 'kind of' because Christmas is mentioned but not a lot in the last half. It's based off the Vocaloid song 'Reboot' - those who have heard it know what you're in for, those who haven't... Ha.

I'll explain a couple of things at the end - for now, enjoy!

* * *

 **One Last Wish**

* * *

The air was bitterly cold as snow fell down onto the icy roads below, but the low temperature was unable to bring anyone's mood down. It was Christmas Eve – aside from the stressed adults buying last-minute items ready for the festive holiday, joy resounded through the streets. It was a time for celebration. No cold temperatures could ruin that.

Before spending time with their families, Dean Ambrose, aged eleven, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, both aged ten, were spending a few precious hours together. It was their routine ever since they had become friends several years ago. They would be sure to see each other on the morning of Christmas Eve until the early afternoon, just enough time to have fun together and give each other their Christmas presents.

They were sat on a bench at a park to do this, neither minding the snow making their trousers wet for they were too excited to notice. Every year they did this from oldest to youngest – Dean, Roman, then Seth, and it was now the latter's turn. They were usually only tiny presents that their parents gave them money for, but that was about to change.

"Seth's turn!" Dean grinned excitedly.

Seth smiled, pulling out two packages of equal size and handed one each to his friends, who both immediately began to unwrap them. They finished at almost exactly the same time, each holding up their matching present. It was a dog tag, detailed with a wolf on top of a shield, hanging off a long chain. Roman and Dean exchanged a glance, before they both grinned at their friend.

" _Awesome!"_ they chorused, before Roman added, "How did you get the money for this?"

"I've been doing loads of chores over the last couple of months. And look-" Seth reached into his pocket to pull out a matching necklace, holding it up with a proud smile on his face. "I've got one too, so we can match. They're really long as well, so we can wear them even when we're adults."

"So they're like those kind of friendship bracelets girls wear?"

Slightly embarrassed, Seth nodded, "Yeah."

"Nah, these are ten times cooler than those girly things!" Dean said, inspecting the necklace with closer detail. "It's _so_ cool! I'm gonna wear it everyday!"

And he did just that – as did Roman and Seth. The necklace, despite it being huge on all three of them, hung down from their necks everyday over the following year. They were worn even when tension began to build between Roman and Dean.

Seth didn't understand why. He suspected it was small things which had started it, just irritating habits or tiny things being taken the wrong way. Even on Roman's birthday in May, they were arguing. They had barely forgiven each other by Seth's birthday a few days after.

When the colder season began to drift in, Roman and Dean were trying to push aside their lingering tension so they could enjoy the holiday. Seth had began to worry that their usual Christmas Eve schedule would be ruined due to their arguing, but thankfully, they met up as usual.

For the first couple of hours, it seemed to all be okay. But then, just as they were walking down the sidewalk towards the park to open their presents, the arguing had started again.

"My family this, my family that… Maybe you should try being grateful for once! You wouldn't think you're the oldest!"

"They suck and you know it, Roman! It's fine for you, your family are great, but have you seen _mine?"_

"They still love you, Dean! Try being Glen – he doesn't even have any family!"

"You can't just use someone else to-"

"Guys-"

"Yes, I can! If you're not happy just talk to them! God, I can't believe I'm so much more mature than you are!

"Just stop arguing!"

"Shut up, Roman, you're just saying what your dad says!"

"Well, maybe that's because I'm not actually scared to-"

Dean lunged himself at Roman, his hands grasping onto the material of the boy's coat. Roman pushed him away, his hand catching onto the chain of his necklace as he did so, causing the dog tag to fly off the end. Seth gasped, running over to pick it up without a second thought, his ears blocking out all noises around him in his panic. He gently picked up the dog tag, a smile on his face when he saw it wasn't damaged, but then his head turned to the side when his ears finally noticed the sound of a truck making its way towards him.

Dean looked straight past Roman, his eyes widening, unable to make a sound. It wasn't until Roman had turned around that he found his voice.

"Seth, move!"

" _SETH!"_

Their yells, however, were barely able to be heard over the collision and the sound of brakes being used far too late.

* * *

"Dean? Dean, come on, we've got to go outside..."

"I'll be there in a minute, I want to say goodbye."

"I do too."

The mother nodded, walking outside with the rest of their families. Dean and Roman turned away from them to stare down at the coffin in front of them. Their faces were damp from tears.

"If we hadn't been stupid enough to fight… If we had just listened to him _for once..."_

Dean was looking down at the floor as he said this, his voice low as he clenched his fists. Roman thought he was going to be hit – but it's not like he would blame Dean for doing so. If he hadn't had said that one comment that pushed Dean over the edge, Seth would still be alive. The blame was on him.

" _WHY?!"_ Dean screamed, burying his face into his hands as fresh tears poured down his face. "Why didn't we listen to him? Why couldn't we just get along? The three of us would still be together if we did! He's gone, he's gone, he's gone..."

His mother had rushed back into the room, his father close behind, as he was pulled into her arms. Roman's own parents were now hugging him, but he wasn't crying – he was just staring at Dean as the words processed through this brain.

Meanwhile, the spirit of their deceased friend watched over them. Tears would be falling down his own cheeks if it were possible – but it wasn't. He was invisible, his body in the coffin in front of them, stuck in purgatory until his dying wish was fulfilled.

Neither Christmas Day or New Year's Eve had been the same. It was hard to enjoy the holiday season when a death had occurred so soon before it. Despite their sadness, however, Dean and Roman returned to school to try and get back into their normal lives.

But it wasn't the same. The bonds between them, which had already began to loosen, had now untied completely. With pain stabbing in his chest, Roman watched as his friend briefly looked at him before walking away with who seemed to be his new best friend – their classmate named Dolph. Roman's lip quivered, his head lowering after watching the two boys walk away, before he hurried in the opposite direction. Now he had lost his two closest friends – as did Dean.

It was impossible to imagine that they could ever make eye contact again.

* * *

Ten years later, the spirit of Seth still lingered. Unable to be seen or spoken to by anyone, he had long given up hope that his one wish would come true and accepted that he would most likely stay here forever, inside this invisible shell of his ten-year-old self. Slumped down on the floor, his eyes were directed at the feet of the people walking by – but he wasn't paying attention. For the countless time in his 'life' as a spirit, he was thinking over the moments leading to his death.

However, his thoughts were shifted from this when his eyes looked up at a tall man walking by. Seth sat up straighter, his eyes staring at the man's back which was slowly edging out of sight, long, dark brown hair flowing out into the wind behind him. No, it couldn't be…

Seth got up and followed, having to run in his young form to catch up with the man's pace. He would have let out a gasp if he was able to – it was undoubtedly Roman. On his T-shirt was a logo that was very similar to the design on their dog tags long ago, with the words 'The Hounds' stated on it in white writing. As Roman was now approaching a sport's centre, Seth guessed that it must have been the name of some kind of team. Curious, he continued to follow, but he never got the chance to find out the answer.

Roman's movements had froze when he opened the door to the sport's centre. Stood near the reception desk was Dean, who was now turning round at the sound of the door opening, making eye contact with his old friend for the first time in years. With no other idea of how to react, Roman backed out of the doorway with the intention of running away, but he didn't even get halfway down the street before Dean had grabbed onto his wrist.

"Don't you dare go anywhere!"

Roman turned to face him, guilt shooting through his chest when he saw tears beginning to fill Dean's blue eyes.

"It's about time we stop blaming ourselves."

" _You_ should stop. It was my fault, so it's right to put the blame on me."

"No it wasn't!" Dean argued. "It wasn't your fault, and it wasn't mine!"

Roman's lip quivered. He turned his head to the side, his eyes dropping to the floor.

"But-"

"It just happened, okay? It's one of those unfortunate moments in life that we try and put the blame on ourselves for, when really, we just needed to move on. But I'm sorry Roman, I never did that, and I let us break apart because of that."

Dean could no longer hold his tears. Roman also began to cry, and when Dean's hand loosened on his wrist, Roman pulled him into a hug.

"I'm sorry too, Dean… I'm so sorry..."

* * *

That evening, the two of them stood outside of a bar together, a beer in each of their hands as they stared up at the night sky.

"You know, it sounds crazy, but I feel like Seth's watching over us right now, probably glad that we finally stopped being fucking idiots."

Roman laughed, "It's not crazy; you're probably right."

"I've missed you, you know," said Dean. "I really have. I mean, we were friends for years, man, and we just..."

"Yeah, I know."

"I still wear it though, you know." Dean unzipped his leather jacket to reveal the dog tag resting on his collarbone. "Even after all this time."

"The chain broke on mine, but..." Roman pulled out his wallet, revealing that the dog tag was now attacked to the zip on a small length of chain. "Seth's was buried with him, but this one flew out of his hand when… When he was hit. I've kept it all this time."

Dean smiled, "I guess it shows just how much he wanted to hold onto our friendship, huh?"

"That's true. You can, uh, spend Christmas with my fiancé and I, if you want."

"That'd be awesome."

Of course, as they spoke, Seth watched over them, bearing the first smile he had ever since his death. He closed his eyes as he filled with warmth, his body beginning to glow. This was it – this was his final wish fulfilled. All he ever wanted was to see was his friends to have the strong friendship they used to have, to be happy again in one another's company. He didn't want his death to be the end of it, and now, their bonds had been retied.

" _Stay strong,"_ he said in a breathless whisper, before his spirit finally vanished away. Roman and Dean turned at what they thought was a voice, only to find no one there. They glanced at each other, before Roman burst out laughing.

"God, I think I've had a few too many drinks," said Roman, looking down at his empty glass. Dean nodded in agreement, chuckling, but his hand was grasping onto the dog tag hanging from his neck.

* * *

 **A/N:** Will I ever actually be nice to Seth? Probably not. I swear he _is_ my favourite...

Anyway, a couple of points -

I wanted to make Seth the one who took Zimi's place because of how Dean and Roman were arguing a lot months before the Shield broke up. I thought it would work well because of that. No, it's not because I like bullying Seth a lot.

I made Dean take Miku's place because I feel like after all the times he wanted to hurt Seth when they broke up, he would be the most emotional and less likely to let it go. Plus, he worked better for how I imagined the dog tag breaking off, like the star charm in the song. I feel like I could have wrote it either way around and did have reasons why Roman could have taken Miku's place instead, but I enjoyed it this way around.

So anyway, I recommend listening and watching the video of this song! Just search for 'Vocaloid Reboot' and it'll come up. It's absolutely beautiful. I hope you enjoy this fanfiction which is given to you purely because of it. Reviews are appreciated!

Have a lovely Christmas!


End file.
